St. Pete man gets 5 years for bomb at Bay Pines VA
December 16, 2019 - A federal judge in Tampa sentenced Mark Edward Allen of St. Petersburg to five years in federal prison for attempting to destroy United States government property with an improvised explosive device. Allen placed an IED at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Bay Pines which was found and rendered safe, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida. Two days later, an individual called law enforcement and reported that Allen had been making other IEDs in his St. Petersburg home. The individual provided one of the devices to the FBI, and seven additional completed and partially completed IEDs were found during a search of Allen’s home. Allen was arrested on June 1 and pleaded guilty on September 23.